If you liked
Books like The Big Short
by Michael Lewis
The Big Short is Michael Lewis's account of the handful of misfits who saw the 2008 housing collapse coming and bet against the whole system. He makes credit default swaps read like a heist. If you want more non-fiction that turns money and disaster into page-turners, read on.
The shortlist
What to read next
Moneyballby Michael Lewis
“Moneyball by Michael Lewis 2003 review. Billy Beane's data-driven 2002 Oakland A's season. The Brad Pitt film source and the canonical contemporary book on sabermetrics.”
Going Infiniteby Michael Lewis
“Going Infinite by Michael Lewis 2023 review. The Sam Bankman-Fried embedded account of the FTX and Alameda collapse. Lewis's most-contested book.”
Bad Bloodby John Carreyrou
“Bad Blood by John Carreyrou 2018 review. The Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes blood-testing fraud. Carreyrou's investigative account built from his Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal reporting.”
Empire of Painby Patrick Radden Keefe
“Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe 2021 review. The Sackler family and the operational mechanics of Purdue Pharma's OxyContin marketing strategy across three generations. The canonical contemporary investigative non-fiction book on the opioid crisis.”
Say Nothingby Patrick Radden Keefe
“Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe 2018 review. The 1972 disappearance of Belfast mother Jean McConville and the broader IRA history of the Troubles. Keefe's first major book and the basis for the 2024 FX Hulu limited series.”
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankindby Yuval Noah Harari
“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 2014 review. A single-volume history of Homo sapiens from cognitive revolution to the present. The popular-history bestseller that defined the 2010s book-club shelf, with the trade-offs that ambition requires.”
FAQ
Common questions about The Big Short read-alikes
- I want more Michael Lewis.
- Moneyball is the essential one, how a cash-strapped baseball team used overlooked stats to beat richer rivals, the same knack for turning a system into character-driven drama. Going Infinite, on Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX collapse, is the recent one.
- I want more business and fraud non-fiction.
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou on Theranos and Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe on the Sacklers are the gold standard. Both take a system gone wrong and make it read like a thriller, exactly The Big Short's move.
- I want gripping investigative non-fiction generally.
- Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe turns the Troubles into an un-put-downable narrative. Different subject, same discipline of building a story from years of reporting.
- I want the big-idea, reframe-the-world non-fiction.
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari zooms out to the whole human story and the systems that run us. It is the wide-angle companion to Lewis's interest in why institutions behave the way they do.
The original